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Ex-astronaut Henry "Hank" Hartsfield, who flew three shuttle missions and commanded Discovery's first flight, has died.

The El Lago resident was 80.

Hartsfield, who commanded Challenger's last successful flight in 1985, criticized NASA for failing to disclose the shuttle's potential safety problems before the 1986 blast that killed seven astronauts.

He served in several NASA administrative positions before joining Raytheon Corp. in Houston, and was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2006.

Judy Hartsfield Gedies of Clear Lake said her father was a dutiful pilot, devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, and a man who loved jokes.

"He had a privilege granted to few people in history: He got to look back on the Earth from outer space," she said.

Hartsfield showed his humorous side after a seven-day Challenger flight with a record crew of eight in November 1985.

"I had to count them all the time … especially when we got ready to come back," he said. "I didn't want to leave anybody out there."

Henry Warren Hartsfield Jr. was born Nov. 21, 1933, in Birmingham, Ala., and developed a love of flight while watching planes at a nearby airfield.

Gedies said she became an "astrokid" when she was about 10 years old after her father was chosen for NASA's astronaut program in 1969.

"I just knew that Daddy spent a lot of time in simulators and worked a lot of long hours, so when he was finally selected, it was a really happy time for our whole family because he had worked really hard to get there," she recalled.

In the early 1970s, the family settled in the Seabrook community that was home to other astronauts.

He served on support crews for the Apollo 16 moon landing in April 1972 and for all three missions of the first U.S. space station, Skylab in 1973. He retired as an Air Force colonel in 1977 and remained at NASA as a civilian astronaut.

Hartsfield made his first spaceflight as a pilot on Columbia's STS-4 mission in 1982, the final test flight before NASA declared the shuttle operational.

His second shuttle assignment was commanding Discovery's maiden voyage in 1984, and his last, in 1985, was Challenger's final successful mission.